After 5 EventsThe building dictates everything
You do not control access to the site. The contractor does, and construction runs late more often than it finishes early. Plan the event for the afternoon or evening, not the morning, because you need the building clear of trades before your crew can rig. If handover is noon and the event is at two, you are loading in while the cleaning crew is still working.
Confirm vehicle access three days out and again the morning of. A new site often has one usable entrance, temporary barriers, and no clear place to unload. If your crew is carrying cases across gravel in the rain because the access road is not paved yet, they are not setting up on time.
Power, sound and light come in on the truck
The building's own systems are rarely commissioned in time. You need a generator or a temporary supply the contractor agrees to in writing. Do not assume the breaker panel is labelled or that the outlets are live.
Sound has to cover a ribbon cutting outdoors, speeches indoors, and background music during the tour. That is three zones with different acoustic problems. The crew walks the route with you, not with a floor plan, because the floor plan does not show the concrete echo in the atrium or the wind at the entrance.
Lighting is for faces during speeches and safety during the tour. If the building's work lights are the only thing on, officials will be lit from above like a crime scene. Bring dedicated units and test them in position the same day.
The guest list has four groups and they do not mix naturally
Officials and press arrive on time, stay for the formal programme, and leave. Neighbours and local business owners come out of courtesy and will not stay long unless there is a reason to. Your own staff will stay, but they have been on site all week and are tired. Contractor teams might attend but are there because they were invited, not because they want to be.
The schedule is short: welcome, ribbon, speeches, tour, drinks. Thirty minutes of formality, forty-five minutes of circulation. Anything longer and you lose the officials before the photos are done. Do not programme a sit-down.
The tour is not optional. The building is why everyone is there. Mark the route, assign a guide to each group of ten, and time it so the last group is back before the officials need to leave. If you are touring an industrial site, confirm that the floor is clean, the barriers are in place, and that no one can wander into an area that is still a construction zone.
Transport and parking are not symbolic concerns
Your people drive to work. If the new site is outside town or in an industrial area, there is no taxi rank and no bus after eight. Either the event ends while it is still light and people can drive, or you arrange transport back.
Parking at a new site is often unmarked dirt. If it has been raining, it is mud. Tell guests where to park in the invitation, not when they arrive and the accessible spaces are already taken by contractor vehicles.
If you are serving alcohol, decide early whether people are driving home. A logistics crew will respect a clear call — everyone drives, or no one does and you have arranged the buses.
Two kinds of crew will quote this
One kind plans the event, writes the brief, and sends it to a lighting subcontractor they met once, a sound company that works four other events that day, and a staffing agency. They take a margin on every line and coordinate by email. If the lighting truck is late, the planner calls the subcontractor. If the building is not ready, the subcontractor calls you.
The other kind sends the same people who walk the site, quote the power, rig the stage, and run the sound desk that evening. If the schedule moves, the crew adjusts in the room, not over the phone. That is not nine suppliers with nine invoices. It is one team who know the equipment because it is theirs and know the site because they were there at seven that morning.
You will hear the difference in the site visit. One crew asks about the building's readiness and the contractor's access rules because they know those are the risks. The other asks about your vision.
What to settle before you call anyone
The date, and a fallback if handover slips. The start time — afternoon is safer than morning. Whether your people are driving home. How many officials are speaking and for how long. Whether the tour is guided or open. Where the vehicles unload and where the generator sits.
The venue is the new building; the question is whether the building will be ready. Your crew needs to know that as early as you do.
This guide was written by the After 5 Events crew: the people who rig the site, not the people who describe it afterwards.